Bronze Age Acrobats: Denmark, Egypt, Crete
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Bronze Age Acrobats : Denmark, Egypt, Crete. / Iversen, Rune.
In: World Archaeology, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2014, p. 242-255.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Bronze Age Acrobats
T2 - Denmark, Egypt, Crete
AU - Iversen, Rune
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - A Danish eighteenth-century find of some bronze figurines tells the story of the practising of similar ritualperformances across Bronze Age Europe from Egypt to Scandinavia. The Danish figurines, as well as Swedishrock carvings, show backwards-bending female acrobats doing backward handsprings. The exact same appearanceis found on Egyptian depictions related to ceremonies and festivals.OnMinoan Crete backwards-bent acrobats arerelated to bull leaping and bull ceremonies. Despite local variations, backwards-bent acrobatic performancescarried out by topless female actorswere part of the immaterial, ritual and cosmological exchange that characterizedthe second and early firstmillennium BC.Beliefs and ritual practices went hand in hand with the adoption of a seriesof elite items and an aristocratic lifestyle, thereby creating a unique and fascinating European Bronze Age.
AB - A Danish eighteenth-century find of some bronze figurines tells the story of the practising of similar ritualperformances across Bronze Age Europe from Egypt to Scandinavia. The Danish figurines, as well as Swedishrock carvings, show backwards-bending female acrobats doing backward handsprings. The exact same appearanceis found on Egyptian depictions related to ceremonies and festivals.OnMinoan Crete backwards-bent acrobats arerelated to bull leaping and bull ceremonies. Despite local variations, backwards-bent acrobatic performancescarried out by topless female actorswere part of the immaterial, ritual and cosmological exchange that characterizedthe second and early firstmillennium BC.Beliefs and ritual practices went hand in hand with the adoption of a seriesof elite items and an aristocratic lifestyle, thereby creating a unique and fascinating European Bronze Age.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - European Bronze Age
KW - acrobats
KW - figurines
KW - Scandinavia
KW - the Aegean
KW - Egypt
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.886526
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.886526
M3 - Journal article
VL - 46
SP - 242
EP - 255
JO - World Archaeology
JF - World Archaeology
SN - 0043-8243
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 120415344